A sermon is never really done. At some point in time you have to hit "print" and preach the message. But as soon as I'm done I instantly find more I should have said, words I should not have said, and points I would make next time.

Here's one, in pictoral form:

Yesterday I preached on 2 Timothy 4:9-22- a difficult passage, for it contains a lot of (seemingly) insignificant detail. You can listen to it here.

One point was Paul's impact on his surroundings. He was profoundly lonely, yet he was able to write to Timothy about 20 or so individuals. They were mostly people whom Paul had impacted and were either serving congregations elsewhere or coming to Paul's comfort at th end of his life.

Paul's was a life well-lived, invested as a stewardship. His life was not his own, but God's. God used him to make a great impact in the world, and in doing so Paul encountered a lot of resisistance- the last instance of which took his life.

That got me thinking this morning: How much of my life is an attempt to meet with as little resistance as possible- as opposed to making as much of an impact as possible?

Aerodynamics came to mind. The goal in aerodynamics is to make as little impact on your surroundings as possible, ideally to make it as if you were never really there. Aerodynamics, then, is the opposite of making an impact. We tend to live our lives this way: Treating our garage door opener as if it were the drawbridge over a moat- keep out those not invited; slipping in and out of church as inconspicuously as possible; asking "how are you" without ever listening for an answer; approaching conversations with others as an inconvenience instead of an opportunity.

God calls you and me and every follower of Christ to live our lives as a stewardship of God's gifts. My life is not my own. He wants to make an impact through us. And while I want to maintain a character that is attractive and persuasive, I am resolving to live a life that is un-aerodynamic as possible.

Go serve your King,
PW

PS- I almost forgot! I was going to give you a timeline of events around the writing of 2 Timothy. Here you go:
25 dates to help you understand this passage
5BC (approx) Birth of Christ
27 John the Baptist’s public ministry
27 start of Christ’s public ministry
30 (approx) Crucifixion of Christ
32 Conversion of Paul
33-62 Events of Acts
47-58 Paul’s 3 missionary journeys
55-63 Mark & Luke write Gospels
57 Paul writes Romans
62 Peter crucified
64 Nero’s persecution in Rome
67 2 Timothy- Paul’s last letter
68 (likely) Paul executed
70 Jerusalem destroyed by Romans
66-98 John’s Gospel written
96 Clement refers to 11 NT books
98 Revelation written
98-100 death of John
90-100 earliest extant copies of Paul’s letters
125 earliest extant copy of John’s Gospel
150 Widespread use of NT books
200 NT books- 21 or 22
325 Council of Nicea/Nicean Creed
340 Apostles’ Creed (mostly)
397 All 27 NT books accepted